Chinese hospital ship provides free medical services in Djibouti

China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy hospital ship Peace Ark has arrived in Djibouti and is now providing free medical services to local people, the Ministry of Defense said in a statement.

The ship has sailed nearly 10,000 miles from China and is deployed in the area where the temperature can reach 40 degree Celsius.

In the years between 2010 and 2015, the Peace Ark paid visits to Asia, Africa, the Americas and Oceania. A total of 29 countries and regions and 120,000 people have received free onboard medical and humanitarian services.

The Peace Ark arrived in Djibouti on Wednesday and was expected to carry out a nine-day medical service in Djibouti. It will then travel to Sierra Leone, Gabon, Tanzania and other countries to provide free medical and humanitarian services.

About Type 920 Hospital Ship:

The Type 920 Hospital Ship is a class of hospital ship in the People’s Liberation Army Navy of the People’s Republic of China. It consists of only one ship, 866 Daishan Dao. Daishan Dao is also known as Peace Ark (Heping Fangzhou) during peace time.

The ship, with a pennant number 866, is assigned to the East Sea Fleet and based out of Hubei.

The state of the art ship has been constructed in a bid to engage swiftly in humanitarian response to disasters around the world. The ship is 178 m in length, 24 m in width and displaces approximately 14,000 tons. It has a crew complement of 381.

The ship has 500 beds, 35 ICUs, 12 operating theatres, and the capacity to accommodate 60 major surgeries a day – about as many as a large hospital in Beijing. She has treated over 120,000 people across from the globe during her circumnavigation.

The ship is unarmed and painted white with red crosses to conform to the Geneva Convention criteria for a civilian hospital ship; firing upon it is potentially a war crime under international law.